Ep654: Logan Nathan – Your Supplier Is an Extension of Your Business, Not an Outsider

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community. We know that to win an investing you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives to join me go to my worst investment ever.com and sign up for my free weekly become a better investor newsletter, where I share how to reduce risks and create grow and protect your wealth fellow risk takers this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with feature guests Logan Nathan Logan, are you ready to join the mission?

Logan Nathan 00:40
Absolutely, yes. Yes.

Andrew Stotz 00:44
It's great to have you and for my longtime listeners, they'll recognize that Logan Nathan was episode 374. That was about two years ago. And Logan Nathan is the founder and CEO of i 40. Global he's a digital transformation specialists, a serial startup entrepreneur, board director and advisor and an angel in fester. Logan, why don't you take a minute and tell us about the unique value that you are bringing to this wonderful world.

Logan Nathan 01:16
Thank you. First of all, Andrew, telling me for the second time, in your very well presented podcasts that I listen to Tom and Tom as well. For me, it's my 40th in the IT business, I've always been an IT provider. And to this time of my life is all about giving back and growing younger professional to be a better provider of solution to the customer. And we will hear more about it the journey that I'm taking with high 40 global in practical terms, but in essence is about giving the lessons that I've learned over the years, and give it to the younger people to really make sure they understand the customer experience deliverables rather than just delivering a platform.

Andrew Stotz 02:08
And you know, that's what we want to talk about today is not your worst investment ever, because you've already shared that. And for the listeners, you can go back and listen to episode 374. To hear Logan story. But what first, what we decided we wanted to talk about a little bit is the kind of what's going on with your business. Number one, you know what re explain your business to the audience and what's going on over the last two years. And then we're gonna get into two specific things that we want to talk about that are good lessons learn. And I think what can really help the listeners. So maybe let's kick off by telling us about your business number one, and what's been going on over the last couple of years.

Logan Nathan 02:48
Okay, just to recap about my business, my business is all about providing Field Services Management platform for the person or company who actually manages property assets on behalf of their client. What does that really means is they are given an a property or properties in a condo situation or a startup situation, to manage it on behalf of their client, who could be an individual or group of clients. On the other side, when they really maintain that asset, that asset got to be done properly. And typical question before I 40 global coming to see it's getting done, but there is no visibility, there is no safety, no compliance, all of that it gets done, but done in a very hard way in a manual fashion. So what I 40 global does is automate most of it and make that easier in doing so it brings for tenants, which brings the efficiency compliancy safety an end of the day, really make a lifestyle easier for the person that managing that asset to on behalf of their client.

Andrew Stotz 04:07
And, you know, I was thinking about in Thailand, we have some pretty massive property developers these days that have developed and built you know, out, maybe 100 condos and they're managing those also. And you can kind of picture them manually doing this and they're getting overwhelmed is that the type of company or business

Logan Nathan 04:29
would in this in 920 23 Manual is not the right word but they do use multiple software and and doing so it still struggle with you know, financial versus managing a third contractor versus doing all the compliance with their subcontract subcontractor all of these done in a completely different way where these cloud cloud platform works now, they can also talk to each other. So our piece of platform which is Field Service management does set subcontractor management part of it well, and seamlessly integrate with the other platform, as long as they are all cloud based. And doing so bringing these four tenets that I just talked about. Great.

Andrew Stotz 05:14
So let's, let's take a minute to kind of understand, first of all, maybe you can just explain what's been going on with your business as far as your growth and your development.

Logan Nathan 05:23
exciting, exciting. If you recall, when I spoke to you in 2021, we were just getting over the post COVID. And I think we were managed to convince a one of the largest group of clients who do really, you know, solving these problems that there. And we are right into the journey in the second year of journey, where we now putting through hundreds of 1000s of transaction, and doing so meeting some of those four tenets we are talking about in that journey. However, as we get more clients coming on board, and and the growth is happening to things, you're really happy about the revenue coming through, but then you got to deliver that expectation, not just in the in in one, not one or two clients, two or three clients and the growth in a multiple fashion. And that make the challenge in terms of your deliverables, deliverables, in terms of your processes, which we are now I also driven. And the other one is the most important one is your individual resource, your stuff. Right, your staff are the key to really do this. And let me say this, a lot of people think a software is a piece of thing that just plug it in, it works. Yes, it works, as long as the business requirements are understood, and then delivered according to what the customer will pay the mismatches customer says I want this and got a good faith, they document the way they understand. Then the technical people, companies like us take that on. And a good faith, they say this is what they want. But there is a missing component in the bit in the middle, which is called the customer experience, understanding that, that require a lot of communication, understanding what the nerve, what is the nerve center, that really that kicks in for the value, they're trying to give it to their clients. Unless you put yourself as a software company, in not your clients, one your clients, clients shoes, being the actual person they are delivering this service, then this mismatch is all is going to happen is the journey that we have learned over the last two years delivered, according the exact specification we need. And as the customer goes on, three things happen to them, either they have not really explained what they want in a fashion, which we, you know, contractually agreed to it and deliver. That's number one, all their business has changed, moved on since last time. So they really require that changes, which we need to understand and accommodated in a timely fashion. If those two doesn't happen, then what happens is always that is mismatch on what you are on about to deliver to your client was as what the client really need to make their growth and their clients happy. I hope you understand that,

Andrew Stotz 08:26
you know, it's just something came up in my head when you were talking about that. And that is my, one of my businesses is a coffee business where we're roasting coffee, in delivering that to our customer. And you know what our customer wants, they want the exact same thing, every time. For decades, they do not want to have a different coffee experience, unless they purposely go to get a different blend, or they changed the way they prepare it. But that's so different from the software development that you're in, where you're constantly trying to improve the, you know, the experience for the customer. And if you're not, you're going to be just frustrating them and eventually they're gonna, you know, walk away from him. So that's an interesting way of thinking about this constant pressure you're on, under to constantly improve, which is such a different world from, you know, many traditional businesses or maybe the old way of doing business.

Logan Nathan 09:30
Well, first of all, we have a process in place to really go through and understand the customer requirement and deliver in a fashion that is really done according to customer requests. That's a tip number one, but often the world is not just customer giving you a piece of information or piece of work to be done. You got to understand what is taking them and moving them ahead. As part of that. We need to make sure there is a communication channel regularly there sometimes you also perceive or foresee the changes upfront and understand. The other part is when you're delivering a software as a service, but we do here, we die for the global, we need to understand what are the changes happening to the industry, which we can bring the benefit, even if your customer hasn't thought about, that's another value add that you bring in, in effect, that you actually have a strategic partnership in place. Such a way that you are working together, just an extension of your organized customers organization. That's what I was talking about customer experience. Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 10:37
And maybe I think one of the most valuable things that you can deliver to the audience is to understand about delivering that customer experience understanding that customer experience. And, you know, when we talked earlier, before we turn on the recorder, I can tell you the idea that everybody wants to build an app. And everyone's like, Oh, yeah, let's make an app out of this. Let's make software out of this, right. And we'll make a website, you know, software as a service and all that. And then they fall into this quagmire of software development. And when they finally get their head above water, it gets pushed down again. And they just can't get to that point where they've got an operating software that they can iterate and improve on, they just never get there. And I'm curious about, you know, what your learning is, has been from, you know, your experience in this area, what advice would you give people on, if they're saying, let's just say they've got a start up, and they're starting to work on some software? And they're hiring developers, and they're all that? What advice would you give them? All right?

Logan Nathan 11:49
I think there's many here, let me start with the customer service. Number one, you actually agreed to a KPI key performance indicator, you got to make sure you're 100% delivering that that's number one, that gives you a basis of you care about your customer, number one. Number two, there will be always a piece of changes that will be asked by the client, again, go through the process of documenting it, understand the business requirement, deliver it on time, every time. If they do these to you actually build a confidence. And even the customers not aligned with the air requirement versus what you're delivering. They will understand you are the great company to work with. Because you do that the basics right? You deliver the KPI, what they ask for, you actually do the things Tommy delivery that they ask for. Okay, good one becomes easy.

Andrew Stotz 12:50
So let's just talk about this KPI. Now when I'm a beginner, and I'm going to develop software I have my client says they're out there. And I'm hiring a developer or developer team or something like that. When you talk about agree on a KPI, are we saying okay, what's one thing that we absolutely must deliver, you know, consistently, like we always got to be up or the customer can always check the prices of their assets and get it up to date at any time. Is that what you mean by KPI?

Logan Nathan 13:22
But no, in our point of view, they're actually delivering using a piece of software that you're given. And doing so they find whether this is a software problem, or a fuel problem or something new that never never come across. They want to launch a ticket. Yes, I'm having problem in that doing. So they will also have the urgency

Andrew Stotz 13:46
in a priority one, when you say launch a ticket, who is the person that launching that the customer or customer

Logan Nathan 13:51
wants the ticket? Yeah, we're seeing there is an issue or challenge with them. It's that timely feedback and delivering according to their priority is what I'm talking about. Because what they need, they are heart of the business, they are thinking of their business done in a timely manner. And you listen to them, and go back to them in the timely way you win their heart, because if you are no different to another part of the company, you're just another extension of the company. That's a key part of the whole thing here.

Andrew Stotz 14:24
And is there a particular software that you that someone should use when they start that ticketing process? Or is that something that you do internally? Are

Logan Nathan 14:33
we actually using a SASS platform FreshBooks is our platform. Our clients also most of them are using different one, but doesn't really matter. It's the software that you need to evaluate to best suit your delivery, but I'm really talking about the practice and the culture within you as a supplier, giving it to your long term client or a strategic client that you need to build that trust in the relationship.

Andrew Stotz 15:04
And I'm focusing on it from an absolute beginner, just because I think that can bring a lot of values. So what, what we're talking about here is, number one is create a minimum viable product that's delivering some software as a service, type of benefits of features. And then make sure that you've got a feedback mechanism from the customer back to you and your team. And that's done through, you know, them launching a ticket, and then that provides the iteration process of, and this is where I think it's missing in a lot of places is that what ends up happening is when software development happens, basically, a entrepreneur says I want all of this, and they give all of that to developer and then six months later, they go Okay, here it is. And it's meaningless. It's useless.

Logan Nathan 15:55
Guess homing back to KPI. Let me give you a piece of advice for both your listeners both on the customer side and the supplier side. Often what happen, right? Like I said, I've been in the industry for 40 years, often know what happened when a service sorry, a KPI has requested, the supplier will give all sorts of technical terms, right, we will meet 99% of the uptime, we will do that. While the customer thing 99.9% is great. But is that point oh 1% is really where the impact happens to the client. Right? That's what I was talking about understanding the customer, the customer also need to educate the supplier to say, This is what my business is, this is my critical time. I'll come from an airline background. Right? If I give that example, right, if I take Cathay Pacific, between 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock, where most of their flight leaves worldwide, if there is a 99.9% SLA in place, that point one oh percent impacts during that critical 80 plus of the flight time leaves, that's why they bear biggest impact is every business got that unique deliverables, unique importance, timely manner, and so on. So I think what the supplier, and the customer need to do is understand the core value and the core importance on the business. And accordingly, they need to agree on a KPI, often not in technical term often is in business term on the clients way.

Andrew Stotz 17:32
Okay, so that's an interesting one, because I can imagine if it was software related to let's say, running an airport, the software provider could say, hey, we were up 99.9% of the time we delivered our SLA or whatever it is, but you think, yeah, but man that that point one was a crash or that point one was a six hour delay, and that's all our customers care about. Is that point 1%. So you don't you know that? Okay, so tell us more about

Logan Nathan 18:05
property work property term, right? The property managers are at work Monday to Friday, often after hours as well, you really have to talk about what's the deliverables, the impact during their work hours, that's where they are delivering the quality of work to their client. And after there is an after hours impact as well. But that's not important, because people do understand that is outside the normal hours, right? So it is that's a KPI type of thing I'm talking about, which I call it B SLA, business service level agreement, not service level agreement. Most suppliers given them some technical indicators, which often customer don't even understand.

Andrew Stotz 18:50
And okay, so let's go back to this. I mean, I'm really focused on this software development, just because I know it's such a challenge for many businesses, and you've got experience in it. So if you're talking to a beginner, and they have an idea of developing software, and they know what they want to do, they've got a group of customers that maybe are their first movers that are like, I mean, I set up some different products with founding members. And I say, you know, you can join at a lifetime cost of this, I'm gonna bother the crap out of you for the next three months as I develop this product, but you're gonna get access to it for the rest of your life at a certain, you know, low priced. So the question now becomes, okay, how, where do I go as an entrepreneur who knows nothing about software development or anything like that, and I don't have a big budget, where do I go to start to figure out how do I create this product?

Logan Nathan 19:47
Okay, let's go to a credible supplier where they can independently verify often with the Client Testimonial, not what the what they claim what you're able to do in places like LinkedIn. It's a beautiful place nowadays to verify that right independently. That's number one. Number two, make sure you make them understand what are your business requirements, not your technical requirements. And let make sure that whether they can actually translate their technical requirements and replay that in your business terms. Right? Now, the word understanding in one of the one we just talked about is KPI. Right? What happens? If I don't get what I want? How do I get that change? What is the impact with that? What's the penalty or how much it's gonna cost me, most importantly, it's not all about money. It's a robot that timelag and the loss opportunity for the client. So that's got to be delivered. So you know, in a way, it's bsla, business service level agreement from the supplier, that changes get delivered on time, right, and most importantly, ongoing point of view, they have an ISO, you know, international standard organization, process, they they recovery, and they are able to deliver, then what happens is, over a period of time customer can take your hands off, and oakmoss in the supply organization now going through the turmoil, which is part of a good thing or bad thing is that they got key people left or their growth is it's really upsetting the rhythm of delivering services.

Andrew Stotz 21:34
What type of company are we looking for? So I'm going to I'm going to look now for just a second, at the beginning and the ending of what you just said at the beginning, you talked about, you know, go out there and look for supplier try to independently verify I also I'm going to switch what you said about ISO processes to the beginning, say, Okay, do they have ISO processes? Do they explain what those are? Do I understand that? And then, and that's part of that, let's say verification process of Who do I want to work with, then the second thing you talked about is the business service level agreement to make sure that they understand your business requirements, not we're not talking about your technical requirements, that's a whole nother thing. But what we're talking about is, you need to understand that you need to help me deliver on these business requirements.

Logan Nathan 22:19
Mr. Supply, do you understand my heartbeat of my business? The other way around?

Andrew Stotz 22:25
Because going, and then the third one you talked about was the time lag and say, we need some commitment as to what's going to be the process of when the customer puts in their ticket. How are we responding to that? If we know that it's going to take time to implement that? Because it's not a higher priority? How do we either communicate that back to the client communicate that back to the management, that type of thing, right?

Logan Nathan 22:51
And I also say add to it, your customer businesses just like yours is growing? How are you going to align it often customer forgets to talk about that with the supplier? Right. And it's important for the customer to also have a frank conversation with the supplier? Yes, this is what my business requirements are today, but my business going to move? Are you ready to move with with me? How are you going to be have the agility, right, for you to deliver what we need in a timely fashion. That's another pitfall that I see where the challenges starts between the customer and a software vendor.

Andrew Stotz 23:35
So how to deliver ongoing as the customer is their business is growing? How do you make sure that you're servicing the growth of that customer? Yep.

Logan Nathan 23:45
And in that often customer forgets, just like you're changing with your key resources and everything, your supply is also changing. And if you're in a true strategic partnership, I think we need to keep track of both and have an open conversation of exactly, you know, where the impacts are, what the challenges are. And with that, then you have a true relationship. At true successful partnership, often customers see the supplier as an extension of another department of theirs, not an outsource company. Yes, that's how the legality works and all of that. But in terms of the relationship between both sides need to really see it as an extension of their company.

Andrew Stotz 24:27
So let's go back to let's say, I'm an entrepreneur, and I've got an idea I want to develop an app, I want to develop software as a service. I got kind of my preliminary work on it. We're talking about suppliers, independently verify so processes. I guess the first let's take it back a step just to say What are my choices, my choices, number one, hire a developer, right? Choice number one hire. It's just like if I wanted to accomplish something in accounting, I would hire an accountant or if I want to hire if I wanted to almost something in sales, I would hire a salesperson. So one choice is to hire a developer that has its problems. Another choice is to hire a outsource service a company that's developing software. And that's all they do. And then you also have like, do I do that in with local, a local business? Do I do that with a global business is there so if I think about that process, maybe you can give us some guidance as to what do you think should be someone's first step,

Logan Nathan 25:33
I'm going to give you a bit of a disruptive way of looking at this. And I haven't been around for 40 years as a client looking for supplies and vice versa. If you today's word, professional, deliverables are going through a proper process, they get a, you know, a qualification they could what proper training 90% or 95% of the paid professionals are done and dusted, they are there to deliver a deliverable based on the requirements that's given. And of course, supply need a requirement where the mismatch happens is they don't understand their psychology in terms of who they are as an individual. Often, when I'm looking for a professional, I don't ask about the qualification what they have done, I'm really looking at their lifestyle, lifestyle in a sense, do they really understand what the customer is all about? Do they really understand? What's the pain of the client is? Right? Do they really understand? You know, what is that ticking? When you actually even even take a road trip, you take a bus, you understand what it takes to run a bus company to really pick a client and drop them on the site, even you know, picking your kids or whatever you

Andrew Stotz 26:50
saying they should understand me as the client, or they should understand the clients and customer what which one looks

Logan Nathan 26:59
like both the client need to place them on that not on their technical capability, of course, that should be ticked. Right. But more than that, do they really understand the value proposition that you're making in terms of understanding the heartbeat of your business? Not necessarily your business? Right, like you didn't understand, when we talk about, you know, the condos and the starter and the problems that we have. It's about, do we understand the business side of things. And if you're hiring a developer on your own, often you go to a company, which is what the normally other companies do, of course, then you got to look at the culture of the company is this culture of the company, the leaders of the company, really, they had to really deliver a piece of software, all they're really there to deliver a piece of solution for their business, to different things.

Andrew Stotz 27:49
Okay. And I want to start to wrap this up. And I want for you to think about, you know, how would you summarize the key lessons that you want us all to take away from this discussion? What would be like point number 123?

Logan Nathan 28:05
All right. Point number one, make sure your supplier, if it is a customer perspective, understand the business service level requirements. That's number one. Number two, make sure that the culture of that with an individual or a business often is a business that you're dealing with, understand not just about technical terms of delivering a piece of code or a software or whatever, but understand that the business requirements, right, that is coming into bsla. But in terms of do they have that sort of culture, not necessarily understanding your business, which they will do over time, but really, I have that switched on capability to understand the business deliverables? Not the code of the software, that piece of code. Often, that's where the disaster happened. You hire a telco, you have a business, often, you think that the telco understand the business now, today's world, the telco need to understand the business before you hire them.

Andrew Stotz 29:08
Right. Now, last question from me, what is your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Logan Nathan 29:13
Number one call is to really focus on the global growth, which means we have a challenge within our organization to really understand different cultures, different delivering a different time zones, and, and and the meantime, keep that efficient to minimize the costs and really give the maximum value to our clients around the clock.

Andrew Stotz 29:39
And that's it. That's a big challenge and listeners there you have it another story and discussion of loss as well as success to keep you winning. Remember, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. If you've not yet joined that mission. Just go to my worst investment ever.com right now and join the free Weekly become a better investor newsletter to reduce risk in your life. As we conclude, Logan, I want to thank you for joining the mission a second time. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I now award you alumni status two times for taking the time out to share some of your experience to help our audience. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Logan Nathan 30:28
Well, when you're actually building a relationship, just like in our life, your supplier is your heartbeat in terms of delivering your heartbeat of the business. So keep them as an extension of your business not as an outside is that there to just deliver a piece of work, then that success will come automatic. Thank you.

Andrew Stotz 30:50
That's a great lesson about building a trusting and long lasting relationship with your supplier and that's a wrap on another great discussion to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. Let's celebrate that. Today. We continue to add more people to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your words podcast hos Andrew Stotz saying, I'll see you on the upside.